PERHAPS, the hard-working CEO of Racing Queensland, Dr Eliot Forbes, would like to explain to the racing industry why the Government-funded Training Centre at Deagon is reportedly on its knees.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority, a Federal Government body, in its latest regulatory decisions has failed to renew the accreditation of the Racing Queensland Industry Training Centre at Deagon.

RQ has appealed the decision to withdraw its registration as a Registered Training Organisation which will have far-reaching implications for the industry in Queensland but the tip is that this will fail.

MEMO to the under siege and under-performing BOARD of the BRISBANE RACING CLUB:

FROM industry stakeholders and the racing public in QUEENSLAND: When you start treating people like PETER TIGHE, the owner of WINX and his family like second rate citizens, it’s time to give it away.

If the Board are so desperate to hold their positions that they produce some ridiculous excuse for refusing new memberships then those who vote the current directors back when it comes time for their re-election deserve what they get.

There are strong stories doing the rounds that Mr Tighe, former RQ and BRC chairman Kevin Dixon and several other prominent racing identities are keen to form a ticket to challenge at the next AGM.

FOR a good deal of my life I have been a proud follower and supporter of racing on the DARLING DOWNS. Toowoomba might not be the vibrant industry hub it once was but will always be remembered as the nursery of many champions and a pioneer of twilight and night racing.

Over the years politics has made a sad impact on Downs racing and those who run it. The scene today is a sad cry and a far reflection on what it once was. But that’s life and we have to accept it or walk away – which many fine stakeholders have done.

Things happen here that make you shake your head from time to time. One of these occurred in the past week and my friends and I believe the industry is entitled to know the background. I am writing this email anonymously because there are those days that I still like to go to the races and one learns quickly in the current environment that you cannot criticize the present hierarchy and still enjoy your day at the races.

So here goes and I hope you will allow me the space in the WHINGE, which I read regularly, to have my say on an issue that has many of us in Tooowoomba racing quite puzzled.

CHAIRMAN Neville Bell’s message to members of the Brisbane Racing Club about the enforced closure of the Eagle Farm track has prompted a host of responses on social media and to this website which could best be described as less than complimentary.

Rather than comment further on the situation LETSGOHORSERACING reproduces the newsletter which we hope will allow stakeholders and the racing public to make up their own minds about this less than ideal situation.

You be the judge on where the blame should be directed and who should foot the bill for this costly mess:

HEADS should roll over the Eagle Farm track debacle and the first to go should be Brisbane Racing Club CEO Dave Whimpey who deserves to pay the price for his willingness to be the public face of this embarrassment.

The head of Racing Queensland CEO Elliot Forbes should also be on the chopping block despite the fact that the control body – following enormous protest and pressure from top interstate trainers and jockeys – has decided to throw the BRC under the bus.

Have a read of reports on how officialdom handled this disaster in the past month and you will see that RQ – moreso Forbes as the mouthpiece – was happy to support the stubbornness of the BRC Board in refusing to accept warnings that a major disaster was looming.

IN one of the biggest overnight back-flips in the history of Brisbane racing the Queensland Oaks meeting will not be run at ‘Clod Land’, which Eagle Farm has been christened in the eyes of the racing fraternity.

Industry insiders are claiming that Racing Queensland, facing a threatened boycott of the new track by top trainers and jockeys, overruled the insistence by Brisbane Racing Club chairman, Neville Bell 24 hours earlier that: “This track is safe for racing and we will race here for the rest of the carnival."

Living up to their modus operandi of procrastinating when it comes to important decision making on controversial issues, it seems officialdom cannot agree on where the Oaks meeting will be moved to when the obvious choice would appear to be across the road at Doomben.

RACING Opposition spokesperson JANN STUCKEY made this address in reply to the Second Reading of the Racing Integrity Bill in the Queensland Parliament overnight.

On up to a dozen occasions her rejection of the bill was the subject of interjections with call from Racing Minister Grace Grace for Mrs Stuckey to withdraw comments made about her, specifically in relation to alleged conflicts of interest in Board appointments and statements made on integrity issues.

Here is Mrs Stuckey’s statement in the House (interjections included) courtesy of HANSARD: